Fast-tracking security clearances

The "why" is nearly always the toughest. And more often than not, we
never can be sure we got the real reason. But the "how" question is timely.

How did contractor Aaron Alexis, with his track record, get a
security clearance? Shouldn't a lot of different people have been able to connect
the dots along the line: Incidents with the police. Incidents involving
shootings. His early discharge from the Navy. Concerns expressed by friends,
neighbors and coworkers.

Yet he continued to come to work. And like 5 million other Americans (most of
them government contractors) he got a security clearance.

How?

Could it be that the process has been streamlined too much? That the
pressure to clear people quickly has resulted in a flawed process. Consider:

In 2005, it took an average of 189 days to get a federal security
clearance. Today, thanks to pressure from politicians to speed up the process,
the average is down to 44 days.

Would Edward Snowden, leaker of NSA secrets and now a
resident of Russia, have gotten his job under the old, slower security clearance
process?

Would Alexis, the Washington Navy Yard shooter, with a very
troubled past have been cleared in 2005 under the older, slower system?

Five weeks ago, Alexis apparently told police in Rhode Island that he
was hearing voices, being followed, etc. The local cops contacted the Navy. Then
what should have been done? In hindsight, the answer is easy. But, at the time,
a tough call.

Of course, we will probably never know the answers but that won't
stop the
public, press and media from demanding to know how this happened and what, if
anything, could have been done to prevent it.

Where does being a good/concerned citizen end and becoming Big Brother
begin?

If a colleague or neighbor mutters to himself, laughs for no reason or
behaves strangely, do you turn him (or her) in? At what point? And who do you
tell? Anybody who walks through Lafayette Park, across the street from the White
House, has seen that kind of behavior. How many "odd" possibly dangerous people
do you encounter in a typical subway ride.

Currently private contractors do nearly half of all federal security
checks. Is it wise to have contractors vetting contractors? So far, the experts
haven't done all that well.

Maybe it's time to ask people who are in the bullseye — federal
offices and military bases — what they think? Is there any way, short of
having everyone telecommute all the time, to keep government offices safe?

People who play video games are better at walking backwards, new research
suggests. People who play more than 10 hours of first-person action video games a
week were better at detecting what researchers called "contracting radial motion"
— when surroundings shrink away toward the distance — according to a
University of Leicester study.

OMB issues shutdown guidance to agencies
The Office of Management and Budget issued a memo Wednesday providing guidance to
prepare federal agencies for the possibility of a government shutdown. The memo
addressed several frequently asked questions, explaining everything from contracts
and grants to the use of IT operations during an appropriations lapse.

Senators seek probe into how Navy
shooter got clearance
Key senators on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee are
seeking answers into how the contractor employee responsible for the mass shooting
at the Washington Navy Yard that killed 12 people obtained his security clearance.